County Championship, final day of 4, at Edgbaston Lancashire 286 & 322-7 v Warwickshire 322 & 86-5Warwickshire drew with Lancashire

Warwickshire and Lancashire had to settle for a draw which did either of them little good in the First Division table after their match remained stale-mated to the bitter end.

Set a notional target of 287 in 39 overs in the final session, the Bears ended on 86 for five.

There were no late twists and no surprises as a pitch which blunted the bowling of both teams throughout refused to break up. That sluggish surface, allied to rain-delays and dogged batting, had this contest in shackles from ball one.

It never looked likely to fledge into anything other than a bore draw and so it proved after the addition also of a last-day dose of fear.

In the bottom two, Lancashire could not afford to lose this match so captain Glen Chapple delayed his declaration to deny Warwickshire even a sniff of victory, even though it did the same to his own team.

Warwickshire’s hopes of pushing for a win were thwarted by a fine century from Steven Croft whose unbeaten 104 arrived at a speed (118 balls with ten fours) unprecedented in this dreary match.

The Bears were left to digest little profit from back-to-back home stale-mates and need to give their season some impetus away to bottom-of-the-table Northamptonshire starting on Sunday.

After Lancashire resumed on 84 for two, the Bears quickly removed the overnight batsmen. Andrea Agatheangelou lifted Jeetan Patel for six but tried to repeat the shot and was stumped by yards.

Simon Kerrigan was superbly caught by William Porterfield at second slip off Boyd Rankin.

But Lancashire inched to safety via a series of hard-nosed partnerships - forgettable but valuable - featuring Croft. He added 76 with Ashwell Prince, 45 with Jos Buttler, 42 with Tom Smith and 56 with Glen Chapple.

Had Buttler completed a pair when he inside-edged Patel just beyond the grasp of Laurie Evans at short leg, then Warwickshire might have pressed hard. But the ball didn’t go to hand and the bowlers toiled on with only sporadic reward.

Patel tempted Prince down the track to his doom, Rikki Clarke induced a fatal edge from Buttler and Rankin flattened Smith’s off-stump but Croft stayed firm to see his team to sanctuary.

Patel was aghast not to have him lbw, offering no shot, on 60 (so evident was his disbelief, he may hear from the ECB disciplinary bods in due course) but it was a rare scare for the proud son of Blackpool.

When Warwickshire went in again, they reached 48 without loss before spinners Croft and Kerrigan started to nibble away at a largely out-of-form top order.

The Bears were never in danger of defeat but had Chapple not delayed his declaraton so long, his team might have won. Fortune favours the brave - which the Lancashire skipper wasn’t.